Wednesday, November 7, 2012

England’s Dom Barrett, with a 279 final game, earned top qualifier honors in the Professional Bowlers Association’s Bowlers Journal Scorpion Championship at South Point Bowling Center Tuesday by 14 pins over Jason Sterner of McDonough, GA.Barrett, who won his only PBA Tour title in the 2011 Scorpion Championship during PBA World Series of Bowling III, rolled games of 222, 235, 218, 276, 199, 258, 257 and 279 for an eight-game total of 1,944 pins to lead the field of 16 qualifiers who advanced to Tuesday night’s six-game semifinal round.After six more games, the top four players will advance to the ESPN stepladder finals on Sunday, Nov. 11, at 2 p.m. in the World Series arena setting in South Point’s Exhibition Hall area. The Scorpion Championship finals will air on ESPN on Sunday, Jan. 6.Rounding out the top five Scorpion qualifiers were Mike Devaney of Hemet, CA, in third place with 1,920 pins; PBA Hall of Famer Pete Weber of St. Ann, MO, in fourth at 1,913 and PBA Senior Tour standout Hugh Miller of Mercer Island, WA, at 1,905.

Barrett finally broke through to reach the semifinals after finishing 18th in the Alka Seltzer Plus Cold Cheetah Championship, missing the top 16 cut by seven pins, and finishing 17th in the Viper Championship, missing the cut by four pins. He wasn’t nearly as close in Monday’s Chameleon Championship. “I didn’t like that one so much,” he said.But he made sure he wasn’t going to let the Scorpion get away from him.“Around game five, you have to start lofting the ball because the condition breaks down,” Barrett said. “I’m not the best lofter, but after what I learned here last year, I’ve gotten a lot better at it, practicing hard at home.“I won the Scorpion last year, so I’m still alive, and I’m hoping I can defend. I like the length of this pattern. It has a little more oil volume than the other patterns we bowl on,” he continued. “At home I’m used to playing on slicker surfaces, and this pattern kind of comes into that range.”

The Scorpion Championship is also was the fourth and final qualifying leg for the PBA World Championship. Combined eight-game qualifying round scores from the Cheetah, Viper, Chameleon and Scorpion Championships determined the 24 players who will advance to three eight-game World Championship match play rounds Wednesday and Thursday.After 32 qualifying games, Sean Rash of Montgomery, IL, won World Championship top qualifier honors, averaging 239.44 for a 7,662 pinfall total. Tommy Jones of Simpsonville, SC, was second with 7,598 followed by Australia’s Jason Belmonte at 7,544; Chris Loschetter of Avon, Ohio, at 7,522 and Dan MacLelland of Canada at 7,504.

Complete GEICO WSOB IV coverage is available on the “live scoring” feature on pba.com, or by watching the action live on Xtra Frame, PBA’s online bowling channel.